道宣律師感通錄 1.19

1.19

I asked again: "Are the Changgan stupa and the Mao stupa in Yangdu built by King Aśoka or not?" He replied: "They are. Formerly, Liu Sahe had a spiritual resonance; when he went to Yangzhou, he climbed Yuecheng and gazed into the distance, seeing an extraordinary aura at Changgan, whereupon he marked and excavated it, as is explained in his biography today." I asked: "If so, since there was already a 'Changgan', did it mean a Buddhist mast?" He replied: "It is not a stupa mast; it is the name of the place. A long mound is called a 'gan'. The stupa was adjacent to the long mound. Does not the text say, 'encompassing Gan and Yue'? 'Gan-Yue' is the name of a mound. The stupa in Mao County of Linhai was also built by King Aśoka. Among the Buddhas at the beginning of the Bhadrakalpa, it holds an arm bone of Kāśyapa Buddha, not visible to mortals. An arhat brought it toward the Iron Ring Mountains and left a small stupa. As for that large stupa, there are good deities, and two fish have appeared: eel-like fish in the well are the deities guarding the stupa. Beside it, on the rock, there are footprints said to be the places trodden by the three previous Buddhas. They welled up from the earth to open up worldly blessings. Formerly in the Zhou dynasty, many people lived in this land, and therefore this stupa was placed here."